Red states and blue states

• Majority for Barack Obama ( Democrat)
• Majority for John McCain ( Republican)
• 1 Nebraska uses a different electoral system and awarded one vote to Barack Obama, the other four votes to John McCain. In the States Census, the state McCain is attributed.

Red states and blue states is a common in the United States distinguish the states according to their political majority in the presidential election. States with a majority in favor of the candidate of the Republican Party are called red states, those with a majority in favor of the candidate of the Democratic Party than blue states. This party colors are used for the graphical representation of results. The term was first used by commentators during the current reporting on the 2000 presidential election with a very tight output and in connection with the long-disputed election result, but is now regularly used in political reporting in the United States. Outside of election coverage, the terms not only on the result of the last election, but to the ordinary voting behavior of the electorate in elections over the past decades, especially in presidential elections. States that are not party clearly attributable to Swing States ( change states ) are called.

Differentiation into red states and blue states

The main reason for the division into red and blue states are primarily the results of the presidential elections, as it is tuned here throughout the country about the same people. The midterm elections have lower weight, because in the states and the electoral districts for the House of Representatives the personalities of the local candidates play a major role.

In the elections in recent years it has emerged that red states are found mainly in the south ( the conservative- evangelical " Bible Belt " ) and in the States of the Great Plains and along the Rocky Mountains ( the so-called Mountain States ). Blue States are primarily in the Northeast ( eg, New England and New York), in the Great Lakes and along the west coast.

A more detailed study by a finer subdivision of the State, such as districts or counties, gives information about the actual problem that underlies the flat classification in blue states and red states. The choice behavior usually differs less between the different states as political entities, but rather there is a split between rural and urban areas. Red States and Blue States also differ by demographic factors such as the proportion of blacks in the population. The majority of red states is characterized by a high proportion of rural areas, and agriculture there is often an important industry. Blue States tend to be more influenced by urban, there also larger proportions of ethnic and / or religious minorities.

Consequently, strong red states of Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming, all of which are not more like a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964. Also in Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas received since the 1976 presidential election no Democratic candidate in the majority.

Strong Blue states are Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and Rhode Iceland. In addition Washington DC, which, although the capital is not a separate State, determines its own electors. Although some of these states for the Republican candidate voted in the 1980s (especially in the presidential election in 1984, when Ronald Reagan won 49 states for themselves and only Minnesota and the District of Columbia for Walter Mondale agreed ), have occurred since the presidential election in 1992 here always democratic candidates enforced.

Historically, the classification is subject to long-term and often profound changes in bastions of Republicans and Democrats. This may result from demographic and cultural reasons, but also from changes in the orientation of the parties.

To the north was dominated in the period after the Civil War by the Republicans, which was the more progressive of the two parties at the time. The rural- conservative south was after the Civil War as a bastion of Democrats (Solid South ). During the 20th century, the political orientation was reversed, with Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies moved the Democrats to the left. When the party in the 60s showed solidarity by President Lyndon B. Johnson with the African-American civil rights movement and the segregation laws brought by the Civil Rights Act to the case, she lost in the south of voices at the same time the growth of the evangelical free churches, mostly with the started now associated conservative Republicans - only the Southerners Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton have since win some states of the Deep South for the Democrats.

The Midwest is split. Indiana has voted consistently Republican presidential candidates from 1968 to 2004, 2008, however, Obama. Even the very Farming Iowa has long been a stronghold of the Republicans lately rather than Swing State - 1992, 2000 and 2008 were the Democratic candidate the electors of the State ). In particular, states with distinct urban areas, such as Illinois with Chicago, Detroit Michigan, Wisconsin with Milwaukee and Minnesota with Minneapolis -St. Paul, however, are strongholds of the Democratic Party. This is Wisconsin in both 2000 and 2004, only just gone to the Democrats, as the rural areas of the state were consistent with a high share of votes for George W. Bush.

Even local migration can change the color of the political landscape. So was the reaching out of the suburbs of Washington, DC in the state of Virginia to the fact that this traditional southern state now no longer republican to be reliable, but is considered to change state.

The division into red and blue states is not necessarily continuous at other options. In elections to the Senate, the personality of the candidates is often decisive. In addition, the parties often fit in the preparation of candidates to the local political circumstances. So put the Democrats in red states often significantly more conservative candidates to have a chance; vice versa is true for the Republicans: In 2009, their candidate Scott Brown won a Senate election in "blue" Massachusetts. For elections to the House of Representatives the boundaries of the constituencies are more important than those of the States, so that eg rural areas often choose Republican Representative " blue " states; vice versa, this example for constituencies with high minority stake in "red" states. Still less is the classification for elections within a state as governor elections and elections to the parliaments of the individual states. Especially in the south, there are " deep red " states, which are dominated democratically at the state level.

Origins of the name

Before the presidential elections in 2000, there were no uniform color when choosing coverage to represent the electoral successes of the various parties in the United States graphically. The practice to use different colors, was largely started with the introduction of color television in the 1960s and to the standard, as well as daily newspapers to went over to use multi-color printing. In terms of the political system in the United States, essentially a two-party system, the use of the three occurring in the American flag colors was obvious. White was thus used for any undecided states.

First, however, was the graphic artist - but not all TV channels - Red used for clarification of federal states where the Democrats were successful and blue for Republicans. Consequently, commented in the presidential election in 1984 David Brinkley on NBC the landslide victory of Ronald Reagan in 49 states as a " sea of ​​blue", a "sea of blue ". The competing CBS used in the time, however, red for Republicans and blue for the Democratic Party. ABC, in turn, used the colors yellow and blue. In 1996, red was the predominant color in the presentation for the Democrats and blue for Republicans.

However, all major television stations used for the first time in the 2000 presidential election uniform blue color, to show the profit of a state for the Democrats and red for Republicans. Probably because of that and because of the weeks-long dispute over the election results in the state of Florida, which meant that the cards on which the states were colored according to the election results were seen for longer than usual in the current reporting, journalists began individual states than blue states or red states to designate.

In the elections to the U.S. House of Representatives 2006, the campaign committee of the Democrats made ​​a habit which is now enshrined in the consciousness of color, as it described the election campaign as a Red to Blue Program. Although both Republicans and Democrats lead no party color, and there is no official legitimacy of the name, the color scheme is used in the media across the board.

For international observers, the choice of colors is inconclusive, since in most of the world red rather represented parties, the interests of the workers and the Liberal represents ( ie about the Democrats in the United States ) and blue symbolizes largely conservative parties ( in the United States so rather the Republicans ). In Canada, the Liberal Party has for decades used the color red and the Conservative Party, the color blue; the phrases Liberal red and Tory blue are widely used there. In Germany the media for maps to use with the results of individual constituencies, the color red for the social democratic SPD and blue for the middle-class conservative CDU, although the latter is usually associated in the public mind with the color black. In the UK, the Labour Party is symbolized by a red rose while the British Conservatives are traditionally associated with the color blue. In the United States, however, stands for the blue collar working people, most of whom supported the Democrats.

The use of red for Republicans and blue for Democrats was for the first time in elections in Texas in 1870 to facilitate the non- English language mighty Spanish-speaking electorate vote.

Impact on the presidential campaign

Since most states send their electors for the election of the President en bloc for the winner within each state, the result is in clear red or blue states largely fixed, so that there occurs no election campaign. The elections will be decided in the swing states, so that electioneering and campaigning largely focus on these states.

Criticism of the distinction

• Majority for Obama ( Democrat)
• Majority for McCain ( Republican)

Critics of a distinction between red and blue states, there is criticism that this distinction is only possible because of the " winner takes all " principle and another evaluation include counties, would result in a different picture. In addition, it is observed that voters often decide in deviation from the result in the presidential election in the elections of governors or senators completely different.

Moreover, the term red is used to describe a state the Republicans inclined toward state rejected because thus also influenced socialist states are associated, such as Cuba or China.

More

• The feature film Red State (2011) refers to the cultural differences between the blue and the red states.